Krimsky ready for a USOC role, whatever that may end up being

He will
not talk about specifics or timing, but there can be no doubt that John
Krimsky Jr. is ready to take on a to-be-announced role with
the U.S. Olympic Committee.

There is a growing belief within the sports business community that
Krimsky is restless as president of YankeeNets Properties. He
was the top marketing executive during an era of unprecedented economic
expansion for the USOC between 1986 and 1999, a period during which
his division was credited with raising more than $2 billion.

Whether he would return to the American Olympic movement as a fund-raising
consultant or fill a newly created USOC position, Krimsky won't say.
But he acknowledged the marketing environment for Olympic sports is
not what it used to be.

"The funding of Olympic organizations in the U.S. must change," said
Krimsky, who was recruited by George Steinbrenner to the YankeeNets
marketing venture along with former USOC executive director and ex-Turner
Sports President Harvey Schiller. "The days of big, corporate
sponsors being the principal resource for the USOC, and the days of
the network broadcasters being able to support the global Olympic village,
as it were, those days are at an end. New ways of raising money from
the public need to be developed, and quickly."

The USOC's quadrennial budget when Krimsky joined the fray —
after a 26-year career at now-defunct Pan American World Airways —
was $182 million. The 2001-04 budget is $491.5 million.

Krimsky said he is one of several members of the USOC's "old guard"
in contact with USOC President Sandra Baldwin about "a whole
range of programs she is planning to implement."

The economic engine that has fueled exponential growth in sports sponsorship
and advertising in the past decade obviously is sputtering, and Krimsky
said he expects "the [Olympic] movement will be impacted in much the
same way as the rest of sports."

But, unlike his former brethren in the airline industry, so strapped
that the U.S. government is providing emergency funds, Krimsky believes
the business of the Olympics is on its own. "There is probably no government
bailout coming for the Olympic movement," he said.

ALLIANCES MIGHT ADD MUSCLE: When discretionary marketing
dollars were flowing the past 15 years, U.S. federations governing the
glamour Olympic sports desired autonomy from the USOC. They hired marketers
and hit the street to sell their annual properties, some with great
success. Bob Colarossi, president of USA Gymnastics since 1998,
sees that tide turning.

Marketing partnership between the high-profile sports and the USOC
"is the model the USOC wants to get to," Colarossi said. "It is a partnership
of economic necessity but also mutual benefit and value. It doesn't
make sense not to have us working together."

For now, USA Gymnastics is solo as it shops sponsorship deals for two
major properties, the 2002-04 U.S. Championships and the 2003 World
Championships, which recently had its venue moved from Indianapolis
to Anaheim. Indy was unable to accommodate an August '03 time frame.
Anaheim was an easy choice because Southern California is the nation's
hottest youth gymnastics market.

World championships typically are owned and operated by a sport's international
governing body. But when the world gymnastics body awarded the 2003
championships site, USA Gymnastics, as host federation, negotiated the
rights to both domestic and world sponsor packages.

As USAG discovered in July when its national championship went on without
a title sponsor for the first time in 15 years, even proven, TV-friendly
Olympic sports are meeting with resistance in the current marketplace.
Fortunately for gymnastics, it has domestic advertising and signage
deals with Adidas, General Motors, Hershey, Texaco
and Visa through 2004.

RING TOSSES: Scott Blackmun's fate remains in limbo. The
acting USOC chief executive officer won't learn whether he will get
the job permanently until meetings Oct. 26-28. The decision was due
in mid-September. Then Sept. 11 dawned and schedules were altered. Meanwhile,
a USOC panel apparently has received other candidates to review from
its headhunter, Korn/Ferry International. A group of Olympians
sent a letter endorsing Blackmun, however. ... City councils always
seem at odds with Olympic organizers. Salt Lake City is no exception.
The 2002 host city's council members balked at plans to erect the five
Olympic rings — each 160 feet in diameter — in the foothills
above Salt Lake during the Games, Feb. 8-24. An Oct. 9 public hearing
is pending.